The present invention relates to a mixing capsule for producing a dental preparation, the dental preparation being mixed from different components in a mixing chamber of the mixing capsule, which is securely positioned inside the mixing capsule until mixing.
The expression “dental preparation” refers here to multi-component materials such as adhesives, filling materials, fixing materials in general (fixing cements in particular) and glass ionomers, but not to amalgams or amalgam mixtures. The invention is firstly aimed at providing a mixing capsule, but one which, in addition to its function as a “mixing capsule”, can also be used in certain circumstances as an application capsule.
Mixing capsules which can also be used as application capsules are known, for example, from EP 0 783 872 A2, EP 1 029 513 A2, EP 2 238 942 A2 and EP 2 510 897 A2.
A common feature of these mixing capsules is that they are each adapted to mix two components, which means that, due to the limited range of possible combinations this entails, there are limitations regarding the achievable properties of the mixed dental preparations.
A disposable packaging system which also allows three or even more components to be mixed is described in DE 10 2006 015 238 A1. In the disposable packaging system described therein, however, mixing is done in such a way, due to the technical principle on which the system is based, that a first and a second component are firstly mixed with each other, before the combination of first and second component is then added to the third component. Mixing according to DE 10 2006 015 238 A1 is a cascading, step-by-step mixing process in which several mixtures each composed of two mixing components (pure components or mixtures of components) are brought together.
However, such serial mixing of components does not appear to be possible with the mixing and application capsules known from EP 0 783 872 A2, EP 1 029 513 A2, EP 2 238 942 A2 or EP 2 510 897 A2.
One wish underlying the present invention is to provide a mixing capsule which still allows advantages such as those known and described for the mixing and application capsules known from EP 0 783 872 A2, EP 1 029 513 A2, EP 2 238 942 A2 and EP 2 510 897 A2, but which also overcomes the limitations regarding the dental preparations that can be obtained.